Kadyrov says he won’t travel to US even if he is not on Magnitsky list

Kadyrov stressed that he is proud to be an undesirable person for the U.S.

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GROZNY, April 13 (Itar-Tass) - Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said he would not travel to the United States even if reports claiming that he has been included in the classified section of the U.S. Magnitsky list prove wrong.

If they prove correct, Kadyrov stressed that he is proud to be an undesirable person for the U.S. because that country is violating justice and law throughout the world.

“We can see how they are restoring ‘order’ in Arab countries and who they stand for: they can be for terrorists or against them whichever benefits them. We can all see what is happening in Syria, Egypt, Libya and Iraq,” Kadyrov said on Saturday, April 13.

“I am proud to be a Russian citizen. The best country for development is Russia,” he said.

On Friday, April 12, U.S. Department of State officials said that the Magnitsky list had a classified section but did not say how many persons were on the list or who they were.

They only said that this section is shorter than the public one. Since American legislation does not allow anyone’s assets to be frozen secretly, the persons in the second part of the list can only be subjected to visa restrictions.

The U.S. administration said both parts of the list had been made known to Congress, both in writing and orally.

The “list of persons who have been determined, based on credible information, to meet the criteria described in that [Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability] Act. Such criteria include responsibility for the detention, abuse, or death of Sergei Magnitsky, or involvement in certain other gross human rights violations in Russia, as defined by the law,” the Department of State said.

“Persons on this list are banned from receiving or holding visas to enter the United States. Their property and interests in property subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and transactions in such property or interests in property are prohibited,” it said.

The Magnitsky list is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Hermitage Capital lawyer who was reportedly investigating corruption among some high-ranking Russian officials.

Magnitsky, a 37-year-old attorney of the British investment fund Hermitage Capital Management, was charged with assisting in tax evasion. He died at the intensive care unit of the Matrosskaya Tishina prison infirmary on November 16, 2009, eleven months after he was taken into custody and seven days after he was indicted.